Introduction

What is this site?

This site contains my thoughts, experiences and images of my vacation
in Japan between the 3rd and 16th of November 2002. Since I'm interested
in Japan and I'm into web designing, I decided to combine these
two loves into a website you are looking at now. The exact locations
visited were Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, Nara, Himeji and Nikko.

Who am I then?

Friends call me Ude. I live in Helsinki, Finland and I'm working
at an architect office as a technical assistant (that's what my
business card says at least). Hobbies include listening to music,
making web sites, sleeping and trying to learn Japanese. When I
visited Japan during this trip, I was 28 years old (naturally -
or should I say unfortunately - I've aged since then :-).

Why Japan instead of [insert another country here] for instance?

This is a question I've never been able to answer well. Basically
I'm interested in anything related to Japan. I can't trace the
exact root of cause for this, but I've never really cared about
other countries as much as Japan. I've been interested in the history
and culture of Japan (both traditional and pop), plus I've tried
numerous times to learn the language, but with slim success.

So when I realized I finally had the money to afford a trip to
Japan, I started planning it. I wanted to stop guessing what Japan
is really like and get some answers, so afterwards I can start
thinking about something else for a change (now I thinking when
I could visit the country again, doh! >_<)!

Did you go there alone or with someone else?

Alone. I wanted to throw myself totally in the mercy of the Japanese
and also prove I can take care of myself. Arranging the trip by
myself also gave me full freedom to go where I pleased.

Going alone was for some reason a tough thing for me to decide,
but now afterwards I think it was a great decision. Anyone who
is facing the same problem, relax and just go for it (this applies
for Japan at least).

How did you plan the trip?

Since I wasn't going on a package trip, I had full control in
where I could go. This amount of freedom also meaned that sometimes
it was extremely time consuming trying to decide where to go. Most
of the research I did in the internet and from travel guide books.
On the plus side I made some savings which made the effort worth
it.

I bought the tickets four weeks before departure from Lufthansa.
I actually reserved tickets from ANA a few days earlier, but when
I heard that Lufthansa had a campaign going on for flights to Asia,
I cancelled ANA's reservation and reserved the Lufthansa tickets
instead. Funny enough, they were exactly the same flight routes
and airplanes, but 270 euros cheaper!

Then I reserved via the internet ryokan/hotel rooms for Tokyo
and Kyoto, both of them being my main bases in Japan. I also bought
a travel insurance and a Japan Rail Pass exchange order from a
local travel agent. Money exchange I made through my bank, although
I could have made a better exchange deal with Forex.

What I would do in Japan I left to figure out once I was there.
I agreed with my Japanese internet friends when we could meet.
I also bought travel guides to Tokyo and Kyoto (by Lonely Planet).
I barely had time to read them properly before the trip, but during
the trip they were very valuable companions in quick decision making
where to go!

WARNING! PLEASE NOTE!!

These thoughts and experiences come from a Finnish guy who doesn't
travel often, hasn't visited a huge metropolis for 20 years (which
was London back then) and is fond of Japan anyway. This means that
the experiences I had in Japan might be something not that special
in other countries and my praises toward Japan may feel a bit over
the top, but this is a free site, so that should settle things
pretty much, ne? ^_^